Lotor (Legendary Defender)
Emperor Lotor was the emperor and former prince of the Galra Empire, and son of Zarkon. He was slated to take over his father's role after Zarkon's obsession with the Black Lion, coupled with aid from the Galra rebel faction called the Blade of Marmora and their allies, led to the emperor's defeat at the hands of the Voltron team. With Zarkon in a comatose state under the care of Haggar, the witch had ordered the Empire's commanders to summon the prince. He was accompanied by his four generals Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti. After Zarkon awoke he dismissed Lotor from his duties and then declared open season on his life, even going as far as to track him down himself. With his generals turning against him and forced into a corner, Lotor assists the Voltron Coalition to win a harrowing battle at the last second and offers a truce. After being double-crossed during a prisoner exchange between Zarkon and the paladins for Samuel Holt, Lotor engages in a fierce battle against his father, ultimately killing Zarkon. With the Empire in turmoil after Zarkon's death, Lotor participates in the Kral Zera, a coronation ceremony in which a new emperor or empress of the Empire is crowned. After engaging in a fierce duel against Sendak, Lotor lights the Kral Zera and is officially coronated as the new emperor of the Galra Empire. During season 6, it is revealed that Lotor was both deceiving and using Team Voltron the entire time as well as harvesting Alteans for their quintessence. He then tricked the paladins into helping him enter the rift between realities where he ultimately was stranded after being defeated in a battle against Voltron, which beat his Sincline Mech. Ultimately, he died of overexposure to Quintessence, and his body was later retrieved by Honerva. Biography Lotor was the son of Galra Emperor Zarkon and Altean Alchemist Empress Honerva. Upon confirmation of their child's conception, Zarkon and Honerva rejoiced at the prospect of an heir to the Galra throne and empire. During the early stage of the pregnancy, they decided on the name 'Lotor' for their son which combined Honerva's desire for "Lotarius" after an Altean explorer and Zarkon's suggestion of 'Koltor', a Galra conqueror. However, years of prolonged exposure to Quintessence caused Honerva to fall gravely ill - in a desperate attempt to save his wife and unborn son, Zarkon entered the Rift with her and the two seemingly perished from overexposure. However, they came back to life corrupted. Months later, despite a difficult labor riddled with complications Lotor was born healthy and in good shape. However, the love his parents once had for him was now gone - his amnesic mother refused to acknowledge him as her own and his father coldly ordered the doctor to take the crying infant away. Lotor was placed under the care of a governess, Dayak for many years. From time to time, Lotor would be presented to his father for updates on his progress; during one such meeting, Lotor ask about his mother and what happened to her. Zarkon told him she was gone, and that was all he would say. A few years later, Lotor forged a bond with the cat Kova, who had formerly belonged to his mother. In his earlier years as a Galra commander, Lotor was tasked with the takeover of a planet to harvest Quintessence. He yearned to work alongside the people of the planet, but when Zarkon and Haggar arrived, Zarkon was furious. He took command away from Lotor, and Haggar stunned him. When he work up, he saw that Zarkon had already destroyed the planet and killed the entire race. Expressing his hate of his father, Lotor yelled at Zarkon, who banished him from the Galra empire. In the years following his banishment, Lotor met and worked with Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid and Narti. During that time, presumably before he recruited his generals, he starts his work on the Altean Colony. At the same time he was recruiting Alteans, he was likely researching Altean culture and ruins to learn the secret to quintessence and Oriande. It's also likely during this time, Lotor had begun to harness quintessence from Altean life force from the colonists who had met the qualifications for it. After Zarkon was gravely wounded in a fight with Voltron, Haggar ordered for Lotor to return, to seize command of the Galra. Lotor fought in a Galra ring, and soon revealed himself, challenging Throk, a Galra who looked down on Lotors methods, to a fight. Lotor defeated Throk with ease, but did not kill him, instead, he allowed Throk to stand with him, giving a speech of how the old ways of backstabbing got Theban Galra nowhere and that he would change it. As he left the ring, his generals asked about Throk, to which Lotor told them to put him on an Outpost on a wasteland planet. Later, Lotor will go on to perform a series of tests on Voltron, which when he deemed them unworthy, attempted to steal the lions from them. When Allura managed to beat him however, Lotor recanted the earlier statement then would go on to trick them into retrieving the Trans-Reality comet for him. Lotor himself doesn't meet up with Team Voltron until after he is removed from his position as Emperor Pro-tem and is being hunted by Zarkon. This is after Zarkon discovers that Lotor has a trans-reality comet. which Lotor had used to built ships from. And also after Lotor himself has killed Narti, causing a split between himself and his generals. After saving the Voltron Coalition from near total annihilation at Haggar's hands Lotor addressed Team Voltron with the intention to ally himself with them. At first, Team Voltron did not trust Lotor, and had locked him in a cell in the Castle of Lions. But after he managed to kill Zarkon following an ill-fated trade between Team Voltron and Zarkon for Sam Holt, the Voltron Coalition considered him an ally. Lotor would then warn Team Voltron about the Kral Zera, which he believe he should win as any of Zarkon's top men and women succeeding would only result in a continuation of Zarkon's empire. Despite Team Voltron's wishes to not get involved, Lotor along with the clone Shiro arrived at the Kral Zera. After a near mishap with the Blade of Marmora who had infiltrated and planted bombs at the ceremony, Lotor won and became the new official Emperor of the Galra Empire. As the emperor, Lotor made it his chief priority to harness the quintessence from the rift so that it could be used to sate his father's old commanders. He convinced Allura to go to Oriande, so that they could gain its secrets and thus potentially harness the power of the rift. Where Allura succeeded Lotor himself had failed, but Lotor did not see that a deterrent from his plans. Alongside Allura, Lotor went on to finish the third of the sincline ships. Once complete, he and Allura had journeyed into the rift where they harvested pure quintessence. At their return, Lotor and Allura kissed, suggesting that they intended to further their relationship only to be cut short when they were greeted by an angry Team Voltron, including Romelle who had informed the rest of Team Voltron about Lotor's actions at the Altean Colony. Lotor is captured by his generals who had been sent by Haggar, who had watched the whole ordeal unfold via the clone Shiro. Which after he is flipped and knocked out by an angered and hurt Allura. He is taken to Honerva who seemingly tries to apologize for her actions as Haggar only for Lotor to cut her short. After Acxa betrays Honerva her, Lotor, and the rest of the generals return to the ruins of Daibazaal where Team Voltron had already destroyed the trans-reality gate. At this point Lotor reveals to Ezor and Zethrid that his split from the generals had been a ruse the whole time so that he could infiltrate Team Voltron and get close to Allura so that he could use her to get to Oriande. After a heated discussion at the ruins, the two factions begin fighting, only to stop when in crazed rage, Lotor claims that he wants to get rid of all his enemies, including the Galra. At this, Acxa and the other generals seek to betray Lotor once more, only for Lotor to eject them from the sincline ships before then. He then combines all the sincline ships to form full Sincline, which he uses to fight the Voltron lions with. This fight later turns into one between Sincline and full Voltron at the arrival of the Black lion and Keith. Lotor met his demise at the hands of Voltron after he piloted his Sincline Mech into the Quintessence Field. Seeking ultimate power, he was consumed by it and engaged Voltron in a final battle where Voltron won when Allura had blasted him with raw quintessence. However, it was not until after Honerva recovered his Sincline Mech that his fate was officially revealed. He had been decimated by Voltron's Quintessence Overload Beam; all that remained of him was a melted, decomposing corpse that Honerva pledged to avenge by saying she would soon see him again. Legacy Honerva was eventually able to tear through to a reality where she had died long ago but Zarkon and Lotor had not - in this alternative reality, Lotor was a young boy, deeply loved by his father and excelling in his Altean studies. When Honerva came to visit him, the young Lotor was initially delighted and went to embrace her but stopped when he sensed that she was a fraud. Despite repeated pleas from both Honerva and his father, Lotor firmly declared that his mother was dead and that Honerva could not replace her. Ultimately, Allura helped Honerva realize her mistreatment of her son, and Honerva herself admitted Lotor deserved better than she gave him in life. When she and Allura sacrificed themselves, Honerva went to Zarkon and Lotor, and finally had the family she was willing to destroy the universe to save. Appearance Lotor's appearance bears little in common with that of the average Galran, aside from his long limbs, lavender skin, and yellow sclera. His white hair is usually kept slicked back over his shoulders with a single forelock hanging down over his face. When piloting his ship or in the gladiatorial arena, he keeps his hair tucked under a helmet. Unlike the average Galran, his eyes possess visible pupils and irises, which accentuate his rather cunning and snide facial expressions. Lotor's bears pointed ears like much of the galra, though his in particular bear more resemblance to Altean ears. He possesses Altean markings, which deviate from the common sickle-shaped markings most Alteans possess, his own being larger and arguably more jagged.This is likely due to the fact that he was exposed to the rift entities as a fetus,as prolong quintessence exposure tends to have physical effects on one's body, as they did with Honerva's Altean markings. It is up to speculation on whether or not these markings are always present and merely blend into his skin, or if they only exist as the "Mark of the Chosen". Lotor's build is lean, quick, as he was strong enough to cleave Throk's blade in two with a single-armed stroke of his blade - a feat not easily achieved by contemporary human swordsmen. Lotor commonly wears a custom suit of Galran armor. It bears a great resemblance to the uniforms of his personal generals, being black, dark indigo, and accented with blue and orange. Though unlike his generals, Lotor's armor is much more de-saturated, as his armor bears a lot more gray and less orange than their armor does. Personality Unlike his father, Zarkon, Lotor sees no point in suppressing those he conquers. Rather, he prefers to amplify his strength by instilling goodwill in those under the Galra Empire's rule, sparing his enemies in exchange for loyalty and service. This is seen in his treatment of the people of the colony his father had assigned to him. However, Lotor is also quite vindictive, as evidenced by him dropping the cybernetic arm of General Raht, who Haggar had sent to spy on him, at her feet Throk was a victim of a similar set of ploys: publicly he was defeated and spared from death by Lotor to gain greater support from the Galra people, only to assign him to what Throk considered to be the worst post in the Empire, the item he was protecting stolen by Lotor's own generals, and was then both tortured and killed by Haggar for his failure as. Also, he killed Narti after believing she was spying on him for Haggar, even though she was initially, one of his most loyal generals. Lotor is rather tough to read, his motives being difficult to decipher based on his fluid and changeable tactics, thus his behavior is inconsistent with his actions. Lotor is also quite patient, being willing to observe his enemies, drawing them out, and engaging once he has a firm grasp of their tactics, indicating that he prefers to have the edge and control in most situations, battling on his terms alone. Lotor has trust issues, likely stemming from his childhood upbringing. Even the people closest to him he kept at arms length - he did not tell Acxa, his second-in-command, about the Altean colony nor the fine details of his plans. This is likely why he is so difficult to read. Lotor is unbiased in how he views people, and chooses them based on skill, not on their race for the most part. He enlists half-galra as his top generals, and seeks to ally himself with people outside of his race. Regardless, he does not seem to hold the Galra in high regard at all. Lotor is known to revere and study his Altean ancestry, hoping to find clues to solving the problem of extracting quintessence without the cost of lives and entire planets. He has been shown to consider himself unworthy of the secrets of Altean alchemy due to giving into his more violent roots, attacking the guardian of this treasured knowledge, and praising Allura for her commitment to the pacifistic ways of their ancestors. Lotor's interactions with Allura since joining forces with the Voltron Alliance have (seemingly) been known to be diplomatic, polite, and kind. Later on, however, he claimed this was a ruse to Ezor and Zethrid, as he intented to get closer to Allura so that he could use her to get to Oriande. To what extent this claim is true is unknown, as he later goes on to plea with Allura to join his side and admits that his feelings for her are true, suggesting that to some degree, he was honest in his actions. It's possible too, that Lotor had intended to manipulate Allura, but those feelings turned to be genuine the more he acted them out. More of Lotor's personality is shown when, after Allura compared him to his father during his and his generals' fight with Voltron, Lotor appeared to snap simply at the possibility that he had become his father. As a result, Lotor also showed a more deranged and insane side of his personality, as he claimed to want to kill all his enemies, including the galra. Though this is possibly something he said at the spur of the moment, as he was upset over Allura insulting him by comparing him to his father, who had traumatized him in his childhood. Abilities Intellect Lotor has demonstrated that he is extremely intelligent and a cunning strategist. He is a tactician of considerable skill, capable of quickly analyzing and countering his opponent's tactics, and quick to adapt his plans to the situation at hand. Lotor is a careful planner, who rather judge and know who he is up against before engaging. He prefers to fully understands the risks a choice could present before executing said choice.This is the case when he tests Voltron in the beginning of season 3 as he wanted to make sure they would have the skill enough to remove the trans-reality comet from where it was stuck in the wormhole. However, he is shown to not be above high risk plots, as his plot to overthrow Zarkon and ally with Team Voltron was not without its near failures. Additionally, he is a master orator and manipulator, and is able to sway people to join his side with words alone. This is seen in "Changing the Guard", in his speech to rally Zarkon's court behind him, but also in how he manipulated Allura and his generals to go along with his plans. Swordsmanship Lotor is also a master swordsman. In his debut, he illustrates his skill with a one-handed sword, disarming and defeating an opponent of much greater size. His technique is shown to be fluid, and reliant more on using his own opponent's strength against them in attempt to conserve his own energy. Piloting Lotor is shown to be an extremely competent pilot, as he was confident enough to take out his own personal fighter out to face the Paladins alone. In said battle, he was able to get to the paladins to play against themselves by skillfully maneuvering around them and causing them to attack themselves. This skill is further portrayed in his battle against the paladins in Thayserix, and later when he managed to escape Zarkon's fleet in "A New Defender". His is most notably portrayed in "Defender of all Universes", where he managed to skillfully pilot Sincline as to wreck Voltron, and had the upper edge until Voltron tricked him. In the Quintessence field without terrain influence, Voltron and Lotor seem to be equally matched in piloting skills. Superhuman strength Lotor has been shown to be quite powerful in terms of his strength despite his emphasis on speed and technique in his fighting style. This can be seen in how he was able to hold his own against Throk, a much taller, albeit lanky, galra. In said fight he managed to break Throk's sword, suggesting that he is in fact, quite powerful. However, this strength does not reach the levels of his father, Sendak or Allura. Notes *According to series staff, Lotor is 10,000 years old because he was already conceived by the time Honerva entered the rift on Daibazaal.AfterBuzzTV: Voltron Legendary Defender Season 5 Episodes 1 & 2 Review & Reaction with Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery - 00:13:00 - Transcript: Lauren: "Being in her womb as she was being exposed to all this quintessence it's like, it's part of his DNA. It almost puts him on a level with Allura who—In which her quintessence is definitely part of her DNA. So it's uh, interesting to see." Joaquim: "And it's allowed him to stay so beautifully young this entire time." Lauren: "Yes, beautifully young. He's aged at a much slower rate than your average Galra." He was born after she became Haggar and admits to living several centuries' worth of time. The exposure to Quintessence of the rift, which has become part of his DNA, allows him to retain a youthful appearance, as his body ages at a much slower rate than other Galra. ** Allura was born before Lotor, but because she was put in a stasis sleep for 10,000 years and he instead experienced those 10,000 years' worth of time, Lotor is older than her. *Lotor is double-jointed at his shoulders. *Unlike his original counterpart, Lotor shows no obsession towards Allura. His love for her is treated as genuine, as confirmed by series staff.Den of Geek: "Voltron’s Message of Love", June 2018 *Lotor was likely the one who gave Kova to Narti, as he was the one to own the cat before Narti. *To what degree Lotor orchestrated his plan to manipulate Team Voltron by splitting himself from his generals by killing Narti and later earning Voltron's trust by killing Zarkon is unknown. Lotor himself admits to have intended the split so that he could get closer to Voltron, but a later comment by Acxa in season 8 implies that Narti's death was unintentional. **Though it's possible that Acxa's statement is intentionally omissive, as she regrets siding with Lotor during that time period and deeply regrets her involvement in that plan. **There are evidence that he in fact plotted this out, as he had an easy escape from the generals initially, and Acxa had let him go when he was apprehended in the trade between Zarkon and Team Voltron. ***Though this doesn't take into account the very small chance he had of success with this plan, though he going through with it might be a result of his overconfidence. * According to Montgomery, the main reason why Lotor became the person he is now was his traumatic upbringing: Abandoned by his biological parents, Lotor was forced to survive on his own, even if it means manipulating others to get what he wanted. She further elaborated that had Lotor raised by genuinely loving parental figures like Allura, Lotor would likely grow into a much better person.Voltron: The Ultimate Downfall of Lotor ** Both Montgomery and Dos Santos also added that in this way, both Lotor and Keith's upbringings are indirectly parallel to each other (in Keith's case, he never met his mother until events of Bloodlines and lost his father at a young age). In fact, had Shiro never enter his life and supported him, Keith would likely ended up become as bad as Lotor. References Category:Voltron: Legendary Defender characters Category:Characters Category:Galra Category:Males Category:Galra Empire (Voltron: Legendary Defender) Category:Altean Category:Antagonists Category:Deceased